– by educating your customers
Content marketing is one of my favourite aspects of marketing for many reasons. One of the somewhat hidden benefits of content marketing is how it can improve your relationship with your customers through their learning.
Most of us have experienced bad customers, whether they were difficult to sell to to begin with or whether they are difficult to work with once business is underway. There are many reasons for them being this way (some people are just like that ;) but in many cases these difficulties can be reduced through content marketing. By informing and enlightening your customers you can remove many of the hindrances to a good relationship, and even open the door to selling them things that they may never have been willing to buy otherwise.
The best way to illustrate this is by examples:
For a web designer: Teaching your clients about how good preparation can not only give them a better website but in a shorter space of time and for less money means they will come better prepared and that job will be smoother all around. You can even provide them with a mini course to guide them through what best to do before they come see you.
You can also teach your customers about the value of search engine optimisation and content marketing, thereby laying the seeds for selling them those services in the future.
For a beautician: Talk about the various treatments, their pros and cons. If I have read things about how good a facial is for me, I may come more often than I would have otherwise.
A fitness trainer can talk about the benefits of this way of exercising rather than some other way, so that when the client comes to train they understand why they are doing the exercises they are doing. This makes the client more happy with their training and the trainer does not have to spend precious time explaining why things are done like this rather than that.
A designer or artist can share the thoughts and inspirations behind their works, why they have chosen the materials they chose and give insight into their creative process. This is not only interesting, but helps people to understand the value and quality of their work. Not to mention the value of letting people get to know more about them, and thereby being better able to connect with the artist or designer.
For myself, I can tell you, that I much prefer to work with those that have been following me for a while through things like my blog, my email list or social media. When people come to me because someone has told them about me, but they haven’t really researched me and don’t know anything about me except that I help people in their marketing, they tend not to be ready for the work. Those people often don’t understand how I work or the basics of marketing, so often way too much time is spent on the very basics, and just getting people to realise that things don’t happen overnight and that you have to do the work. You will know, if you have read any of my stuff, that marketing success does take time and work. However, you don’t need a big budget to get great results – but you do need to know what you are doing and you will reap what you sow.
What would you like your customers to know about you and what you do? When dealing with difficult customers, what is it that you wish they’d know and understand? What would help you sell your product and services? How can you use this in your content marketing?
Share your challenges in the comments – perhaps I can help ;)